Phagan, Mary
Quick Summary
Mary Phagan was a 13-year-old employee of the National Pencil Company in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1913, she was found murdered in the factory's basement shortly after collecting her pay from the factory superintendent, Leo Frank. Frank, a Jewish man from New York, was convicted of her murder.
The trial was controversial, with accusations of coerced testimony and prejudice influencing the outcome. Despite appeals and a commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment, Frank was abducted from prison and lynched by a mob in Marietta, Georgia, in 1915. His case and death significantly impacted the formation of the Anti-Defamation League and contributed to the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan. Frank was posthumously pardoned in 1986.12
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